A SENIOR Muslim leader's suggestion that women who failed to
wear the hijab were "inviting" sexual attacks was "abhorrent" and grounds for
his resignation, representatives of Muslim women say.

Urfa Masood, 28, vice-chairwoman of the Fitzroy-based Islamic
Women's Welfare Council of Victoria, said she backed yesterday's call by the
Islamic Council of Victoria for Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali to resign his
position.

Ms Masood said: "I was appalled by the comment. Sexual
violence is a terrible crime to be inflicted on a woman and to blame it on the
woman is just not an acceptable attitude."

Like the council's chairwoman Tasneem Chopra, Ms Masood was
wearing a hijab and said the cleric's suggestion that it was a protection
against rape was "rubbish".

"I don't think any of us put on the
hijab saying 'now I am going to be safe, no one will rape me'.
It is simple a matter of taste.

Ms Chopra said the sheikh's linking of the hijab to
protection against sexual crimes was "totally disingenuous in that he completely
ignored the incidents of sexual violence perpetrated from within the Muslim
community". She said all women are susceptible to sexual violence in their
homes.

"The attire of women is not the issue.
It is the criminal behaviour and inclination of men who perpetrate those crimes
that is the issue at large." Ms Chopra said she was
heartened that at a time when the sheikh's comments could have driven a wedge
between the Muslim and the wider community, they had been strongly rebuffed by
the vast majority of Muslim commentators, both men and women.

"The average Muslim realises that these are not comments that
represents Islam, and certainly don't represent Muslim Australia," she said.